Comment by pxc

I just took a look in F-Droid, and it looks like there are more than 20 launchers in F-Droid that are under active development (updated within the past three months). A lot of them are very different from each other, and a few look quite nice.

I was a long time Nova user, so clearly at one point I looked at the F/OSS offerings and didn't love any. But the longer I've used Android, the more I have come to appreciate the way F-Droid calls out anti-features, dependencies on proprietary services, etc. This kind of privacy violating stuff just can't sneak up on you on F-Droid, or get buried in a ton of fine print. (The extreme cases, of course, are patched out altogether lest an app simply be banned from the store entirely.)

In the time since I first gave Nova a shot, the Play Store has become a source of absolute last resort for me, in sourcing apps. I think this time, I'll explore launchers that are exclusively F/OSS, and only via F-Droid, for at least a few months before I even consider recommendations from the Play Store.

The wild thing is that I don't think you need to be either a F/OSS zealot or a miser to get it, at this point. Even if you're fine with proprietary software, even if you don't mind paying for your apps, it's too hard to find apps that are vetted for decent behavior outside of F-Droid. There is no store for "well-behaved, sometimes-proprietary apps".

So that's my recommendation: even if you don't think of yourself as a F/OSS hardliner, consider looking to F-Droid first in seeking your replacement for Nova. There's something relaxing about getting your apps from a supplier that respects you.